Friday, December 31, 2010

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, believed to be the unwitting model for the iconic “We Can Do It!” poster of a woman flexing her biceps in a factory during World War II, died earlier this week at 86. Ms. Doyle became the unwitting model when, at the age of 17, she took a job as a metal presser at a factory near Detroit and was photographed by a United Press photographer who was working on a piece about working women.

The New York Times pointed that the poster was obscure until long after World War II. "It was not widely seen until the early 1980s, when it was embraced by feminists."

It is altogether fitting that the poster became, as the Times said, "a symbol for the American feminist movement," because, if truth be told, the poster doesn't depict reality. It is the artistic musing of a gifted illustrator.

While the image has become the symbol of the empowered woman, ready to take on a man's world and do anything a man can do while flexing a defiant, sturdy right arm, in real-life, Ms. Doyle's daughter Stephanie Gregg revealed that those weren't her arms: "She didn’t have big, muscular arms. She was 5-foot-10 and very slender."

The most distinctive aspect of the image was doctored.

And while the poster conjures up the image of women happily breaking free of their domestic enslavement and capably performing manufacturing jobs vacated by conscripted men without missing a beat, according to the New York Times, the real life model "quit the factory job after about two weeks because she learned that another woman had damaged her hands while using the metal presser, and she feared that such an injury would prevent her from playing the cello."

The real-life "We can do it!" model actually is more representative of American women -- and more "empowered" -- than the tough-as-nails woman presented in the illustration. Unlike men, who rarely had the luxury of voluntarily quitting a factory job due to fears of injuring themselves, and unlike Ms. Doyle's same-age male peers who were entering the deadliest war in world history (some of her male high school classmates had already been killed in action), Ms. Doyle had the luxury of quitting a job lots of men would have killed for, going to work in a soda fountain, and falling in love with a young man who would become a dentist.

Moreover, it is fitting that this poster has been heralded as a symbol for American feminism because devotees of the latter also paint a picture of their movement that doesn't exactly match reality.

While they claim they are all about gender equality, they happily fight for inequality when, for example, they oppose shared parenting by invoking the nastiest stereotypes about men as abusers.

They talk of equal opportunity but are really after equal outcomes, so they dishonestly insist that the gender pay gap is a product of discrimination.

They correctly insist women have a right to be as secure in their safety as men (but ignoring that men are victims of violent crime far more than women), then they dishonestly paint a picture of our college campuses as cisterns of male predatory sexual violence.

And never mind all those other little things where the genders are decidedly unequal but which their movement has precisely zero interest in even discussing: the life expectancy gap; the suicide gap; the workplace injury and death gap; the gap where men lead women in 14 of the 15 leading causes of death; the funding gap for gender-specific diseases; the criminal sentencing gap; the college enrollment gap; and the literacy gap. And if you mention any of them, you're "whining."

"We can do it"? You already have.

___________________

On a related, but more serious note, it tells us something about our society that a major news daily like The Philadelphia Inquirer would write something like this: "Three female icons of World War II also passed into peace: Miep Gies, 100, a Dutch woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family; Geraldine Doyle, 86, the model for Norman Rockwell's famous "Rosie the Riveter" poster; and Edith Shain, 91, who said she was the nurse getting kissed by a sailor in the famous photo of VJ Day celebration."

This is not intended to detract from Ms. Gies' efforts, but to talk about Ms. Doyle and and Ms. Shain, whose claim to fame was that they had their photos snapped by news photographers, as "icons" of World War II, doesn't just trivialize the unfathomable sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of others in that monumental clash, it smacks of mockery.

Geraldine Hoff Doyle, believed to be the unwitting model for the iconic “We Can Do It!” poster of a woman flexing her biceps in a factory during World War II, died earlier this week at 86. Ms. Doyle became the unwitting model when, at the age of 17, she took a job as a metal presser at a factory near Detroit and was photographed by a United Press photographer who was working on a piece about working women.

The New York Times pointed that the poster was obscure until long after World War II. "It was not widely seen until the early 1980s, when it was embraced by feminists."

It is altogether fitting that the poster became, as the Times said, "a symbol for the American feminist movement," because, if truth be told, the poster doesn't depict reality. It is the artistic musing of a gifted illustrator.

While the image has become the symbol of the empowered woman, ready to take on a man's world and do anything a man can do while flexing a defiant, sturdy right arm, in real-life, Ms. Doyle's daughter Stephanie Gregg revealed that those weren't her arms: "She didn’t have big, muscular arms. She was 5-foot-10 and very slender."

The most distinctive aspect of the image was doctored.

And while the poster conjures up the image of women happily breaking free of their domestic enslavement and capably performing manufacturing jobs vacated by conscripted men without missing a beat, according to the New York Times, the real life model "quit the factory job after about two weeks because she learned that another woman had damaged her hands while using the metal presser, and she feared that such an injury would prevent her from playing the cello."

The real-life "We can do it!" model actually is more representative of American women -- and more "empowered" -- than the tough-as-nails woman presented in the illustration. Unlike men, who rarely had the luxury of voluntarily quitting a factory job due to fears of injuring themselves, and unlike Ms. Doyle's same-age male peers who were entering the deadliest war in world history (some of her male high school classmates had already been killed in action), Ms. Doyle had the luxury of quitting a job lots of men would have killed for, going to work in a soda fountain, and falling in love with a young man who would become a dentist.

Moreover, it is fitting that this poster has been heralded as a symbol for American feminism because devotees of the latter also paint a picture of their movement that doesn't exactly match reality.

While they claim they are all about gender equality, they happily fight for inequality when, for example, they oppose shared parenting by invoking the nastiest stereotypes about men as abusers.

They talk of equal opportunity but are really after equal outcomes, so they dishonestly insist that the gender pay gap is a product of discrimination.

They correctly insist women have a right to be as secure in their safety as men (but ignoring that men are victims of violent crime far more than women), then they dishonestly paint a picture of our college campuses as cisterns of male predatory sexual violence.

And never mind all those other little things where the genders are decidedly unequal but which their movement has precisely zero interest in even discussing: the life expectancy gap; the suicide gap; the workplace injury and death gap; the gap where men lead women in 14 of the 15 leading causes of death; the funding gap for gender-specific diseases; the criminal sentencing gap; the college enrollment gap; and the literacy gap. And if you mention any of them, you're "whining."

"We can do it"? You already have.

___________________

On a related, but more serious note, it tells us something about our society that a major news daily like The Philadelphia Inquirer would write something like this: "Three female icons of World War II also passed into peace: Miep Gies, 100, a Dutch woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family; Geraldine Doyle, 86, the model for Norman Rockwell's famous "Rosie the Riveter" poster; and Edith Shain, 91, who said she was the nurse getting kissed by a sailor in the famous photo of VJ Day celebration."

This is not intended to detract from Ms. Gies' efforts, but to talk about Ms. Doyle and and Ms. Shain, whose claim to fame was that they had their photos snapped by news photographers, as "icons" of World War II, doesn't just trivialize the unfathomable sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of others in that monumental clash, it smacks of mockery.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Here's a story about a shocking case out of Florida that sent a man named Willie Baker to prison for a sex offense against a teenage serial false accuser.

A Florida state trial court refused to allow the jury to hear evidence that the young female accuser had previously accused multiple male relatives of sexual assault on different occasions, and that she admitted that at least two of those allegations were false. The jury, deprived of this evidence, found Mr. Baker guilty.

Mr. Baker subsequently filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. A federal district court correctly granted the writ, and this week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision granting the writ of habeas corpus. The Eleventh Circuit held that the state court's decision excluding the impeachment evidence violated Mr. Baker's rights under the Confrontation and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Baker v. Florida, No. 10-11889 (11th Cir. filed Dec. 27, 2010).

As you read the facts, ask yourself why this young serial false accuser was not in custody at the time she made the accusation against Mr. Baker. Here's what happened: in 1999, a 15-year-old girl identified only as "D.A." filed an abuse report against the defendant, Willie Baker, her brother-in-law, which entailed "oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by or union with the sexual organ of another." D.A. testified that she was living with her sister and Baker in 1999. She said, "I was laying on the couch and my sister went out . . . . So, [Baker] came—out of the blue, just came out touching me, feeling on me. He grabbed my finger, my hand, and took me in their room. She added: "He undressed me and he laid me down on the bed and he had sex with me with a condom. And I told him that I don't go out like that, period." She testified that on another occasion he "was going to try to do it again, but [she] would[ not] let him."

Mr. Baker's counsel cross-examined the girl outside the presence of the jury. Pay attention to the following:

(1) The girl stated that she used to live in Alabama with her grandmother, but that she came to Florida because her "auntie's boyfriend" raped her when she was nine years old. Why wasn't "auntie's boyfriend" prosecuted? Because "[t]hey couldn't catch up with him."

(2) She further testified that she spent her first couple of days in Florida living with her uncle, Risey Darden, until his grandsons tried to have sex with her. (Note the plural -- "grandsons." That means at least two.)

(3) The girl was asked whether she had also accused her uncle, Risey Darden, of trying to have sex with her, she testified that Darden had not tried to have sex with her, but that she might have accused him of doing so.

(4) She later moved in with her other sister, Angela Price, and brother-in-law, Eddie Price. While she was living with them, she accused Eddie Price of trying to have sex with her, but she later told an investigator that he had not done so.

(5) At one time, she accused her brother, Lloyd Andrews, of having sex with her, as well. She testified that Andrews had not had sex with her.

By my count, that's at least five or six males this girl has accused of improperly having sex with her. That we know of. She admitted that three of those males were innocent.

Outside the presence of the jury, Mr. Baker also proffered testimony from Andrews (brother), Darden (uncle), and Angela Price (sister) regarding D.A.'s past allegations of sexual abuse, all of which they denied.

Mr. Baker asked the court to allow the jury to hear this evidence about the girl's prior allegations of sexual assault by multiple males because, he correctly argued, it was relevant to her credibility and veracity. The court, however, excluded the evidence on grounds that only general reputation evidence, not specific instances of untruthfulness, could be used for impeachment.

After hearing the remaining evidence, the jury found Baker guilty.

Mr. Baker filed a writ of habeas corpus in Federal Court. The district court granted the motion, and this week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed it.

The Eleventh Circuit wrote:

"Here, D.A. was questioned under oath about her past accusations of sexual assault by male relatives. She testified that her auntie's boyfriend' raped her when she was nine years old, but he was never caught. She said that Risey Darden's grandsons tried to have sex with her during the day and a half that she spent at Darden's home, but Darden denied that it had happened. She said that she might have accused Darden of having sex with her, as well, but he had not done so. While she was living with Eddie Price, she accused him of trying to have sex with her, but later told an investigator that he had not done so. While she was living with Lloyd Andrews, she accused him of having sex with her, as well, but she testified that he had not done so. Thus, D.A. herself explicitly stated that the allegations against Price and Andrews were false, she acknowledged that she might have made a third false accusation against Darden, and Darden would have testified that the allegation against his grandsons also was false.

"D.A.'s truthfulness was key to the prosecution, and the evidence of her prior false accusations not only spoke to her general character for truthfulness, but particularly attacked her truthfulness and motivation for testifying as they related directly to her allegation against Baker. . . . The evidence that D.A. had habitually lied about sexual assaults by family members had 'strong potential to demonstrate the falsity of [her] testimony' in this case, and 'a reasonable jury might have received a significantly different impression of [her] credibility had defense counsel been permitted to pursue his proposed line of cross-examination.' . . . . Supreme Court precedent clearly indicates that the exclusion of the false-accusation evidence violated Baker's rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Thus, failure to find a Confrontation Clause violation would constitute an unreasonable application of federal law."

Justice was done. But not before a man was sentenced for a horrible crime due to the allegations of a serial false accuser, and not before the state of Florida continued to fight against his release in state and federal courts.

Everyone agrees that serial rapists need to be locked away. It is astounding that there is not a similar consensus -- at least among the people who run our law enforcement and judicial systems -- for serial false accusers.

Here's a story about a shocking case out of Florida that sent a man named Willie Baker to prison for a sex offense against a teenage serial false accuser.

A Florida state trial court refused to allow the jury to hear evidence that the young female accuser had previously accused multiple male relatives of sexual assault on different occasions, and that she admitted that at least two of those allegations were false. The jury, deprived of this evidence, found Mr. Baker guilty.

Mr. Baker subsequently filed a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. A federal district court correctly granted the writ, and this week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision granting the writ of habeas corpus. The Eleventh Circuit held that the state court's decision excluding the impeachment evidence violated Mr. Baker's rights under the Confrontation and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution. Baker v. Florida, No. 10-11889 (11th Cir. filed Dec. 27, 2010).

As you read the facts, ask yourself why this young serial false accuser was not in custody at the time she made the accusation against Mr. Baker. Here's what happened: in 1999, a 15-year-old girl identified only as "D.A." filed an abuse report against the defendant, Willie Baker, her brother-in-law, which entailed "oral, anal, or vaginal penetration by or union with the sexual organ of another." D.A. testified that she was living with her sister and Baker in 1999. She said, "I was laying on the couch and my sister went out . . . . So, [Baker] came—out of the blue, just came out touching me, feeling on me. He grabbed my finger, my hand, and took me in their room. She added: "He undressed me and he laid me down on the bed and he had sex with me with a condom. And I told him that I don't go out like that, period." She testified that on another occasion he "was going to try to do it again, but [she] would[ not] let him."

Mr. Baker's counsel cross-examined the girl outside the presence of the jury. Pay attention to the following:

(1) The girl stated that she used to live in Alabama with her grandmother, but that she came to Florida because her "auntie's boyfriend" raped her when she was nine years old. Why wasn't "auntie's boyfriend" prosecuted? Because "[t]hey couldn't catch up with him."

(2) She further testified that she spent her first couple of days in Florida living with her uncle, Risey Darden, until his grandsons tried to have sex with her. (Note the plural -- "grandsons." That means at least two.)

(3) The girl was asked whether she had also accused her uncle, Risey Darden, of trying to have sex with her, she testified that Darden had not tried to have sex with her, but that she might have accused him of doing so.

(4) She later moved in with her other sister, Angela Price, and brother-in-law, Eddie Price. While she was living with them, she accused Eddie Price of trying to have sex with her, but she later told an investigator that he had not done so.

(5) At one time, she accused her brother, Lloyd Andrews, of having sex with her, as well. She testified that Andrews had not had sex with her.

By my count, that's at least five or six males this girl has accused of improperly having sex with her. That we know of. She admitted that three of those males were innocent.

Outside the presence of the jury, Mr. Baker also proffered testimony from Andrews (brother), Darden (uncle), and Angela Price (sister) regarding D.A.'s past allegations of sexual abuse, all of which they denied.

Mr. Baker asked the court to allow the jury to hear this evidence about the girl's prior allegations of sexual assault by multiple males because, he correctly argued, it was relevant to her credibility and veracity. The court, however, excluded the evidence on grounds that only general reputation evidence, not specific instances of untruthfulness, could be used for impeachment.

After hearing the remaining evidence, the jury found Baker guilty.

Mr. Baker filed a writ of habeas corpus in Federal Court. The district court granted the motion, and this week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed it.

The Eleventh Circuit wrote:

"Here, D.A. was questioned under oath about her past accusations of sexual assault by male relatives. She testified that her auntie's boyfriend' raped her when she was nine years old, but he was never caught. She said that Risey Darden's grandsons tried to have sex with her during the day and a half that she spent at Darden's home, but Darden denied that it had happened. She said that she might have accused Darden of having sex with her, as well, but he had not done so. While she was living with Eddie Price, she accused him of trying to have sex with her, but later told an investigator that he had not done so. While she was living with Lloyd Andrews, she accused him of having sex with her, as well, but she testified that he had not done so. Thus, D.A. herself explicitly stated that the allegations against Price and Andrews were false, she acknowledged that she might have made a third false accusation against Darden, and Darden would have testified that the allegation against his grandsons also was false.

"D.A.'s truthfulness was key to the prosecution, and the evidence of her prior false accusations not only spoke to her general character for truthfulness, but particularly attacked her truthfulness and motivation for testifying as they related directly to her allegation against Baker. . . . The evidence that D.A. had habitually lied about sexual assaults by family members had 'strong potential to demonstrate the falsity of [her] testimony' in this case, and 'a reasonable jury might have received a significantly different impression of [her] credibility had defense counsel been permitted to pursue his proposed line of cross-examination.' . . . . Supreme Court precedent clearly indicates that the exclusion of the false-accusation evidence violated Baker's rights under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Thus, failure to find a Confrontation Clause violation would constitute an unreasonable application of federal law."

Justice was done. But not before a man was sentenced for a horrible crime due to the allegations of a serial false accuser, and not before the state of Florida continued to fight against his release in state and federal courts.

Everyone agrees that serial rapists need to be locked away. It is astounding that there is not a similar consensus -- at least among the people who run our law enforcement and judicial systems -- for serial false accusers.

Crouch was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, as well as 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £535.

She told police that she had been raped in July this year.

The suspect - a 28-year-old man - was arrested and detained in police custody for more than eight hours before Crouch admitted the allegation was false.

Detective Constable Darren Street said: "We take every single report of rape very seriously. Each report is dealt with by detectives and other specialist officers who conduct a full investigation at great public expense.

"The investigation of any false or malicious allegation diverts valuable resources away from genuine crimes with genuine victims. We will take action against anyone who reports a false crime and wastes police time."

Crouch was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, as well as 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £535.

She told police that she had been raped in July this year.

The suspect - a 28-year-old man - was arrested and detained in police custody for more than eight hours before Crouch admitted the allegation was false.

Detective Constable Darren Street said: "We take every single report of rape very seriously. Each report is dealt with by detectives and other specialist officers who conduct a full investigation at great public expense.

"The investigation of any false or malicious allegation diverts valuable resources away from genuine crimes with genuine victims. We will take action against anyone who reports a false crime and wastes police time."

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A woman who reported she had been sexually assaulted outside a house party in Richland Center, Wis., was not telling the truth, and the case has been referred to the Richland County district attorney for possible charges relating to filing a false police report.Police Chief John Annear said inconsistencies in the initial report along with other facts led to a follow-up interview with the woman, 19. In that follow-up, she admitted "her story as originally presented was fabricated." She had reported being confronted outside a house party Nov. 12 by a man who placed duct tape over her mouth and raped her, Annear said.

"She did admit her story was not true; it was not just our conclusion," he said.

Annear released a statement on the case Wednesday, partly in response to rumors that had spread through the county, mostly via Internet messages, about a series of rapes that was being investigated.

"We have not had a series of rapes, and to try to point the origination of those rumors would just be my speculation," he said.

In the statement, Annear said "criminal acts such as what was reported in this case, if real, can create substantial fear in a community. Fabricating a serious crime such as a forcible rape wastes valuable police resources and unnecessarily raises concerns about safety."

District Attorney William Sharp said he had not yet had a chance to review the police reports.

The Richland County Sheriff's Department has not received any reports of sexual assault, either, said Chief Deputy Tom Hougan, though deputies did meet with "one gentleman who had moved here from Texas whose way of approaching women is a little different than what the local girls are used to."

The man was interviewed on "aspects of social etiquette," Hougan said.

A woman who reported she had been sexually assaulted outside a house party in Richland Center, Wis., was not telling the truth, and the case has been referred to the Richland County district attorney for possible charges relating to filing a false police report.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Don't get the wrong idea. Rape is a serious problem. One rape is one rape too many. The headline was to get your attention.

I don't like the phrase "rape culture" because I think it overly simplifies a complicated issue. That doesn't mean I think rape is not a serious issue, or that "false rape claims" are more serious.

This blog does not tolerate any effort to trivialize sexual assault. Our focus is on the men, women, and boys who have been wrongly accused of sexual assault -- whether falsely or otherwise -- because too often their victimization is trivialized, and some of our laws and policies have made it too easy to punish innocent people for offenses they didn't commit. One can, and should, be concerned about both the wrongly accused and victims of sexual assault without trivializing the victimization of either. It is not "either/or."

Society must strive to punish the perpetrators of heinous sex offenses while insuring that the innocent aren't punished with them. Why is this such a controversial subject?

The fact is, the entire discussion is terribly divisive. A disturbing meme is to insist that rape is "normalized" among "men" in general. Snarky anti-rape campaigns directed at "men" in general (e.g., posters that "remind men" not to rape etc.) have sprouted up. Writer Jessica Valenti is one of the purveyors of the maleness-is-broken crowd, once wrote: "Rape is part of our culture. It's normalized to the point where men who are otherwise decent guys will rape and not even think that it's wrong. And that's what terrifies me."

Valenti's assertion, and the meme that tells boys they belong to a seriously flawed gender, ultimately fail because: (1) they don't get at the real problem, and (2) they don't ring true to most people. The vast majority of guys are decent, and contrary to Valenti's assertion, "otherwise decent guys" don't so easily forget their decency and do such a vile thing. Strong visceral reactions of anger and rage to rape claims, and sometimes tragic overreactions, including vigilante beatings and killings, to mere accusations of rape, are far more characteristic of masculinity than is the urge to rape or to excuse rape.

According to the National Institute of Justice, only 2.5 percent of men reported to being perpetrators of a completed or attempted sexual assault since entering college.

It turns out this is correct: "The vast majority of the offenses are being committed by a relatively small group of men . . . .." They are sociopaths who use alcohol and who like to rape. See here.

Rape is not "normalized." Sarcastically reminding college men not to rape accomplishes nothing.Posters and mandatory orientation classes are misdirected and don't get at the real problem: sexual predators who use both alcohol and unsuspecting women to accomplish their vile plans. Any program wishing to significantly reduce sexual assault must focus on them.

The approach taken by the Jessica Valentis of the world hinders the effort to stop rape because it keeps us from focusing on the real problem. The men who don't rape -- that is, the vast majority of men -- should be thought of as allies in the effort to stop rape, not potential suspects in need of education. Insisting that we live in a "rape culture" has it backwards. We live in a culture that loathes rape but doesn't address it correctly. The vast majority of men and boys who don't rape need to be engaged as allies and telling them that they perpetuate a culture of rape is flat-out silly.

Don't get the wrong idea. Rape is a serious problem. One rape is one rape too many. The headline was to get your attention.

I don't like the phrase "rape culture" because I think it overly simplifies a complicated issue. That doesn't mean I think rape is not a serious issue, or that "false rape claims" are more serious.

This blog does not tolerate any effort to trivialize sexual assault. Our focus is on the men, women, and boys who have been wrongly accused of sexual assault -- whether falsely or otherwise -- because too often their victimization is trivialized, and some of our laws and policies have made it too easy to punish innocent people for offenses they didn't commit. One can, and should, be concerned about both the wrongly accused and victims of sexual assault without trivializing the victimization of either. It is not "either/or."

Society must strive to punish the perpetrators of heinous sex offenses while insuring that the innocent aren't punished with them. Why is this such a controversial subject?

The fact is, the entire discussion is terribly divisive. A disturbing meme is to insist that rape is "normalized" among "men" in general. Snarky anti-rape campaigns directed at "men" in general (e.g., posters that "remind men" not to rape etc.) have sprouted up. Writer Jessica Valenti is one of the purveyors of the maleness-is-broken crowd, once wrote: "Rape is part of our culture. It's normalized to the point where men who are otherwise decent guys will rape and not even think that it's wrong. And that's what terrifies me."

Valenti's assertion, and the meme that tells boys they belong to a seriously flawed gender, ultimately fail because: (1) they don't get at the real problem, and (2) they don't ring true to most people. The vast majority of guys are decent, and contrary to Valenti's assertion, "otherwise decent guys" don't so easily forget their decency and do such a vile thing. Strong visceral reactions of anger and rage to rape claims, and sometimes tragic overreactions, including vigilante beatings and killings, to mere accusations of rape, are far more characteristic of masculinity than is the urge to rape or to excuse rape.

According to the National Institute of Justice, only 2.5 percent of men reported to being perpetrators of a completed or attempted sexual assault since entering college.

It turns out this is correct: "The vast majority of the offenses are being committed by a relatively small group of men . . . .." They are sociopaths who use alcohol and who like to rape. See here.

Rape is not "normalized." Sarcastically reminding college men not to rape accomplishes nothing.Posters and mandatory orientation classes are misdirected and don't get at the real problem: sexual predators who use both alcohol and unsuspecting women to accomplish their vile plans. Any program wishing to significantly reduce sexual assault must focus on them.

The approach taken by the Jessica Valentis of the world hinders the effort to stop rape because it keeps us from focusing on the real problem. The men who don't rape -- that is, the vast majority of men -- should be thought of as allies in the effort to stop rape, not potential suspects in need of education. Insisting that we live in a "rape culture" has it backwards. We live in a culture that loathes rape but doesn't address it correctly. The vast majority of men and boys who don't rape need to be engaged as allies and telling them that they perpetuate a culture of rape is flat-out silly.

Lawyer says city officials misrepresented confidentiality agreement in wrongful arrestBaltimore officials paid a $200,000 settlement to a distinguished violinist who had been wrongly arrested on child abuse charges and withheld his name, citing his desire for confidentiality, but the man's attorney says it was the city — not his client — who requested secrecy.Yakov Y. Shapiro, a musician and teacher, filed suit against the city after he was jailed for 40 hours on child abuse allegations because of a police clerical error. Officers issued a warrant for the Germantown man although they had been seeking a Baltimore man named Yisroel Shapiro, who is three years younger and 9 inches taller.

On Wednesday, city officials disputed the attorney's claims and said they acted in an effort to protect Yakov Shapiro. The details of the settlement were first reported by The Daily Record after a months-long investigation.

"My information, and I have no reason to doubt it, was that [the confidentiality agreement] was in there at the insistence of the plaintiff or the plaintiff's lawyer," said City Solicitor George Nilson. "My understanding was that he was relieved that there was not further publicity around the lawsuit when it was published."

"If the only purpose is to protect the city from embarrassment, that's not in my judgment a sufficient reason" to not disclose the name," said Nilson. "That was not the purpose here."

But Steven D. Kupferberg, an attorney for Yakov Shapiro, said he was surprised to spot the confidentiality clause in the written agreement because city officials had not discussed it in the meeting in which they hammered out the settlement deal.

"I wrote back to [Assistant City Solicitor Neal M. Janey Jr.] and said that wasn't part of our discussion and we would rather not enter into that type of agreement," Kupferberg said. "He said we had to go with his wording or the case wouldn't settle."

In March, when the city's spending board — which includes Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, Comptroller Joan M. Pratt and City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young — approved the settlement, a mayoral spokesman told The Baltimore Sun that the plaintiff "demanded confidentiality as part of the settlement agreement."

"We've attempted to provide as much transparency as possible within the confines" of the agreement, Ryan O'Doherty, a spokesman for Rawlings-Blake, said at the time.

O'Doherty did not answer questions Wednesday about whether city officials misrepresented or were misinformed about the details of the settlement, saying in a statement only that it was "undeniable" that the plaintiff's attorney had agreed to and signed the settlement.

"The entire Board of Estimates, including three independently elected officials, approved the agreement in the interest of protecting the claimant from further harm," he said. "The solicitor believes that protecting the claimant was an entirely appropriate objective and has no second thoughts."

Former U.S. Attorney for Maryland and former state Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs said he saw no justification for withholding information about such a large city expenditure.

"I don't care who asks for it. A settlement of that sort … the public has a right to know the facts of how $200,000 is being spent and to whom and why," Sachs said. "To me, that's self-evident. It's irrelevant whether the motive was to protect the victim at his request or whether the motive was to protect a policeman who blundered.

"Those things, to me, are and ought to be irrelevant," he said. "The public has a right to know how its money is being spent. End of story."

Pratt said she agreed to keep Shapiro's name private because Nilson informed her it was a confidential settlement. She said she did not ask Nilson who had requested secrecy.

"I believed him," Pratt said. "I hope this is an isolated incident."

She said she would demand more details if asked to approve confidential settlements in the future.

Attempts to reach Young for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday.

The city and Shapiro agreed that some details of the settlement could become public after a legal challenge by The Daily Record.According to court documents, Shapiro was arrested in November 2007 after Officer Keith Merryman, a member of the sex crimes division, searched in the state motor vehicle database for an accused sex offender named Yisroel Shapiro.

Two brothers had told police and prosecutors that Yisroel Shapiro had molested them more than a decade ago in his Baltimore home while preparing them for their bar mitzvahs, according to the documents.

In a deposition, Merryman said that Yakov Shapiro was the only person he found in the state when he searched for a "Y. Shapiro" in the database. Although Yakov Shapiro lives in Germantown, not Baltimore, a warrant was issued in his name.The warrant listed Yisroel Shapiro's address, but also included details of Yakov Shapiro's physical description culled from his motor vehicle records. Police never went to Yisroel Shapiro's home; rather, officers knocked on Yakov Shapiro's door as he was heading out to baby-sit his granddaughter.

Through his attorney, Yakov Shapiro declined a request for an interview. But in an interview with a psychiatrist that was included in court papers, the physically slight man, then 60, described the "frightening" experience of being arrested and herded into a small cell with 25 other men, many of whom appeared to be on drugs or ill.

Yakov Shapiro's son defended his father at a bail review hearing and explained that he had still been living in the former Soviet Union, where he grew up, when the first molestation episode was alleged to have occurred. He explained that his father had never taught bar mitzvah lessons, did not speak Hebrew and had only visited Baltimore on a few occasions, according to court records.

After his son offered his home as collateral to post a $40,000 bond, Shapiro was freed. But his ordeal was far from over — administrators and parents at the Montgomery County Jewish community center where he taught had been informed of the charges against him, according to court records.

Although police quickly realized their mistake and arrested Yisroel Shapiro, it took months to clear the incorrect warrant from law enforcement databases, Kupferberg said. His client was afraid to leave the house during that time for fear that he would be rearrested, according to court papers.

In an interview with the psychiatrist, Yakov Shapiro said he was "anxious and edgy" after the arrest and developed symptoms of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

'He finds it incredibly ironic that all the time he lived in the Soviet Union he was never arrested, but here in the United States, a place he chose for its promise of safety and freedom from harassment, he was falsely arrested, detained and slandered," psychiatrist and expert witness Susan J. Fiester wrote in a court report.

Kupferberg said his client did not ask city officials to withhold his name because he did not want "people to think he had covered something up."

Kupferberg said that after The Sun reported in March that officials were not divulging the name at the plaintiff's request, he sent an e-mail message to Janey, the assistant city solicitor, asking him to correct the information.

Nilson, Janey's supervisor, said he had not seen such an e-mail and could not confirm that it had been received.

Kupferberg raised concerns that police could repeat the error. Anthony Guglielmi, a Baltimore police spokesman, said he could not reveal whether Merryman had been reprimanded because it was part of his personnel file and therefore protected from public scrutiny.

Shapiro's arrest was a "very unfortunate mistake and a training issue," he said.

"At the end of the day, our officers try really hard and arrest about 70,000 people a year," he said. That's not an excuse, but that's why we have to do our part when it comes to training and things like that."

Yisroel Shapiro, who is also identified in court records as Israel Shapira, pleaded guilty to one count of child abuse. He was sentenced to two days in jail on a five year suspended sentence and remains on probation.

Lawyer says city officials misrepresented confidentiality agreement in wrongful arrestBaltimore officials paid a $200,000 settlement to a distinguished violinist who had been wrongly arrested on child abuse charges and withheld his name, citing his desire for confidentiality, but the man's attorney says it was the city — not his client — who requested secrecy.

LYNDON — A Lyndon woman who reported she was sexually assaulted in her apartment last week now is accused of making up the story, the Caledonian County Special Investigations Unit said Monday.

Kayla Cowdrey, 20, was issued a citation to appear Dec. 13 in Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury to answer the charge of false information to a law-enforcement officer, Vermont State Police Detective Ben Katz said in a statement.

Investigators responded Wednesday evening to the Back Center Road apartment for a reported burglary and a complaint of an aggravated sexual assault. The woman provided a complete description of the purported attacker, and police turned to the media with a composite sketch in an effort to catch the suspect.

"During the course of the investigation, numerous inconsistencies were discovered," Katz said in a news release.

LYNDON — A Lyndon woman who reported she was sexually assaulted in her apartment last week now is accused of making up the story, the Caledonian County Special Investigations Unit said Monday.

Kayla Cowdrey, 20, was issued a citation to appear Dec. 13 in Vermont Superior Court in St. Johnsbury to answer the charge of false information to a law-enforcement officer, Vermont State Police Detective Ben Katz said in a statement.

Investigators responded Wednesday evening to the Back Center Road apartment for a reported burglary and a complaint of an aggravated sexual assault. The woman provided a complete description of the purported attacker, and police turned to the media with a composite sketch in an effort to catch the suspect.

"During the course of the investigation, numerous inconsistencies were discovered," Katz said in a news release.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Spoken by someone who has never had the horrible experience of being sexually assaulted. Do you know what it is like to say no and to be ignored? To me, nothing is as horrible as what I am going through right now and you are respectfully a total a-hole.

This comment was submitted to our post HERE. That post, which is central to our mission, seems to bring out the lunatic fringe more than any other we've ever written.

I do love when people try to sneak a comment in months after the post, when few people will see it or can respond to it, trying to get in a few cheap shots. In this case, I felt it deserved a response.

The presumption, that people posting comments here, or that Pierce or I, have never been sexually assaulted, is not only highly insulting, it’s bigoted. How exactly do you know that the person to whom your comment was directed (it isn’t clear), hasn’t been sexually assaulted? You do know what happens when you assume, don’t you? Only in this case, it hasn’t done a thing to me; you, alone, bear the full brunt of your ignorance.

And yes, we do understand what it is like to say "no" and to be ignored. We run stories here daily outlining cases where men/boys are falsely accused and said “No -- I didn’t do it,” and they were ignored, at best, with many going to jail for days/weeks/months and sometimes years at a time, for something they did not do, where they are likely to be raped (ah, the irony!), and at worst, are beaten and/or killed. Many of our readers have been in that situation. But I suppose in your world that, somehow, is less of a violation than a sexual assault.

The principal point that you don’t seem to grasp is that, yes, to you, it is horrible. But no one here is as emotionally involved with your situation as you are, and we can look upon it with a dispassionate view. I would recommend you find some help, because coming to this site with a hateful rant is wholly inappropriate. Contrary to your “respectful” A-hole comment, kindly understand that this is a site devoted to the issue of false rape/sexual assault accusations. We are not a support group for you, nor do we care to be. There are enough services already for that.

Spoken by someone who has never had the horrible experience of being sexually assaulted. Do you know what it is like to say no and to be ignored? To me, nothing is as horrible as what I am going through right now and you are respectfully a total a-hole.

This comment was submitted to our post HERE. That post, which is central to our mission, seems to bring out the lunatic fringe more than any other we've ever written.

I do love when people try to sneak a comment in months after the post, when few people will see it or can respond to it, trying to get in a few cheap shots. In this case, I felt it deserved a response.

The presumption, that people posting comments here, or that Pierce or I, have never been sexually assaulted, is not only highly insulting, it’s bigoted. How exactly do you know that the person to whom your comment was directed (it isn’t clear), hasn’t been sexually assaulted? You do know what happens when you assume, don’t you? Only in this case, it hasn’t done a thing to me; you, alone, bear the full brunt of your ignorance.

And yes, we do understand what it is like to say "no" and to be ignored. We run stories here daily outlining cases where men/boys are falsely accused and said “No -- I didn’t do it,” and they were ignored, at best, with many going to jail for days/weeks/months and sometimes years at a time, for something they did not do, where they are likely to be raped (ah, the irony!), and at worst, are beaten and/or killed. Many of our readers have been in that situation. But I suppose in your world that, somehow, is less of a violation than a sexual assault.

The principal point that you don’t seem to grasp is that, yes, to you, it is horrible. But no one here is as emotionally involved with your situation as you are, and we can look upon it with a dispassionate view. I would recommend you find some help, because coming to this site with a hateful rant is wholly inappropriate. Contrary to your “respectful” A-hole comment, kindly understand that this is a site devoted to the issue of false rape/sexual assault accusations. We are not a support group for you, nor do we care to be. There are enough services already for that.

Joseph, 22, the eleventh son of Jacob, handsome in form and appearance, is in the Pharaoh's jail today after attempting to rape his master's wife, police say.

The Nile Valley Times does not reveal the identities of victims of sexual assault.

The victim, a 40-year-old socialite, was spared the brutal rape when she screamed, and Joseph fled the house naked, leaving his garment in her bed, police say.

The victim was extremely distraught, and immediately reported the attempted rape, police say. Joseph was arrested, forced to undergo an invasive medical procedure, and is being held without bail.

Neighbors in the area were on edge. "Everyone is shaken that a thing like that can happen around here," said Ankh-es-en-amon, a neighbor. "All of the women are being told to not trust the men."

One out of four Egyptian women will experience a rape or attempted rape in their lifetimes, experts say.

_______________________

SECOND NEWS REPORT:Nile Valley Times, July 11, 2023 B.C.Page 32

JOSEPH RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER SEVEN YEARS

Joseph, 30, the eleventh son of Jacob, handsome in form and appearance, was released from Pharaoh's jail today after a hearing determined he had been falsely accused of rape.

The victim, who had been in an unhappy marriage due to her husband's unfaithfulness, accused Joseph as a way of getting her husband's attention.

"Her actions were an understandable cry for help," said Dr. Ardath Bey, Executive Director of Divine Wives Against Rape. Dr. Bey said the victim's actions were a direct result of her husband's unfaithfulness. "Pharaoh needs to examine the policy that allows male socialites to freely engage in sexual relations with slave girls and boys because it is causing much unhappiness for wives, such as the victim in this case. That policy is an unfortunate manifestation of undeserved male privilege and rape culture, and it is what led to this understandable cry for help."

Dr. Bey counseled against a custodial sentence for the victim, noting that it would not advance Pharaoh's interests, and "the poor woman has suffered enough."

Imhotep, high priest of the Pharaoh's tribunal, said that false rape claims do incalculable harm to their primary victims, women, because it causes them to not report their rapes.

"We encourage women to come forward and report anything that even seems like a rape or attempted rape to them," said Imhotep. "False claims are overblown by the press. And besides, they are but a small price to pay to have women report."

Statistics show that one out of four Egyptian women are raped, and only two percent of all rape claims are false.

Joseph spent seven years in a cell exposed to the elements where, because he is handsome in form and appearance, he was raped repeatedly by other criminals and roughed up by the prison guards. He has incurred attorney's fees in excess of 4,000 sacks of grain in connection with his efforts to prove he was falsely accused. If he is unable to repay his debt, he will be returned to prison. Joseph has no cause of action against the victim for the false claim because the statute of limitations long ago expired.

The victim apologized to all the women of Egypt for the harm her false claim has caused them.

BRUTAL ATTEMPTED RAPE IN EGYPT
He was a predator and she was his prey.

Joseph, 22, the eleventh son of Jacob, handsome in form and appearance, is in the Pharaoh's jail today after attempting to rape his master's wife, police say.

The Nile Valley Times does not reveal the identities of victims of sexual assault.

The victim, a 40-year-old socialite, was spared the brutal rape when she screamed, and Joseph fled the house naked, leaving his garment in her bed, police say.

The victim was extremely distraught, and immediately reported the attempted rape, police say. Joseph was arrested, forced to undergo an invasive medical procedure, and is being held without bail.

Neighbors in the area were on edge. "Everyone is shaken that a thing like that can happen around here," said Ankh-es-en-amon, a neighbor. "All of the women are being told to not trust the men."

One out of four Egyptian women will experience a rape or attempted rape in their lifetimes, experts say.

_______________________

SECOND NEWS REPORT:Nile Valley Times, July 11, 2023 B.C.Page 32

JOSEPH RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER SEVEN YEARS

Joseph, 30, the eleventh son of Jacob, handsome in form and appearance, was released from Pharaoh's jail today after a hearing determined he had been falsely accused of rape.

The victim, who had been in an unhappy marriage due to her husband's unfaithfulness, accused Joseph as a way of getting her husband's attention.

"Her actions were an understandable cry for help," said Dr. Ardath Bey, Executive Director of Divine Wives Against Rape. Dr. Bey said the victim's actions were a direct result of her husband's unfaithfulness. "Pharaoh needs to examine the policy that allows male socialites to freely engage in sexual relations with slave girls and boys because it is causing much unhappiness for wives, such as the victim in this case. That policy is an unfortunate manifestation of undeserved male privilege and rape culture, and it is what led to this understandable cry for help."

Dr. Bey counseled against a custodial sentence for the victim, noting that it would not advance Pharaoh's interests, and "the poor woman has suffered enough."

Imhotep, high priest of the Pharaoh's tribunal, said that false rape claims do incalculable harm to their primary victims, women, because it causes them to not report their rapes.

"We encourage women to come forward and report anything that even seems like a rape or attempted rape to them," said Imhotep. "False claims are overblown by the press. And besides, they are but a small price to pay to have women report."

Statistics show that one out of four Egyptian women are raped, and only two percent of all rape claims are false.

Joseph spent seven years in a cell exposed to the elements where, because he is handsome in form and appearance, he was raped repeatedly by other criminals and roughed up by the prison guards. He has incurred attorney's fees in excess of 4,000 sacks of grain in connection with his efforts to prove he was falsely accused. If he is unable to repay his debt, he will be returned to prison. Joseph has no cause of action against the victim for the false claim because the statute of limitations long ago expired.

The victim apologized to all the women of Egypt for the harm her false claim has caused them.

Ludhiana, October 31 He was branded as a rapist and languished in jail for over 189 days, undergoing severe mental trauma. For nearly four years he suffered legal onslaughts hoping one day he would come out with his record clean. His family members faced social ostracism for a crime their child claimed he had never committed.

Rishi Sood, 31, is a happy man today as the "swindler" girl who ruined his life has been booked by the police for fraud, extortion and filing false rape charges against him.

However, booking the suspect, Suman Paul aka Neha aka Parul Gupta, a resident of Nehru Colony in Modi Nagar district near Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was not a cakewalk for the city police. Despite knowing she has brought false rape charges against Sood many top cops, including SSPs, to dissuade them to file a case against her. That too when three superintendents of police, including two IPS officers, gave a “clean chit” to Sood during the probe conducted by a special investigation team set up by the Ludhiana DIG.

The team, led by Khanna SSP Gautam Cheema, maintained the girl had lodged a complaint against Sood with the intention to blackmail him in order to extort money and recommended cancellation of the FIR. The police also began proceedings under section 182 of the IPC against her for giving false statements to the police. Finally police commissioner Ishwar Singh stepped in and constituted another team, led by ADCP III JS Sidhu, which found Sood to be innocent. Suman was then booked for fraud and extortion.

The incident has again exposed how many women use loopholes in the law to harass innocent youths by falsely accusing them of rape.

Sood, who still shivers while narrating his ordeal, said he met the girl at an exhibition of medical equipment organised in New Delhi in September 2006, where she introduced herself as “Dr Neha”. He said they met at various places following which she “lured” him into marrying her, adding he even planned to visit Delhi to meet the girl’s parents.

“All was going smoothly, until one day Suman demanded Rs 1.5 lakh. I later got to know she had to pay a bill of Rs 1.5 lakh that she owed a local hotel as she was staying there for a long period. When I refused to pay the bill she got a case filed against me," Sood stated.

In the meantime Sood came to know Suman and an accomplice of hers had tried to implicate six other youths coming from “high status” families and working in the medical healthcare industry by sending them SMSes and calling up from different phone numbers. "Somehow we all exchanged notes and managed to escape from the clutches of the gang," he said. Little did Sood know he had landed in the net of an organised racket of "swindler girls" who extorted money from innocent young men by falsely accusing them of rape.

The gang was enjoying support from noted gangster Raman Rana, who is on the run after he killed his bitter rival Lalla. It is learnt that his operating the gang from outside the country. Rishi's father alleged a gang of swindlers had implicated his son in a false rape case and had demanded Rs 22 lakh from him for withdrawing the complaint.

"I refused to pay the extortion amount and spent 189 days in jail for a rape case," said Rishi and further added, "But my misery did not end here soon after freeing from jail another girl, member of the same gang, stated making frantic call at my number."

"Only I know how I faced this humiliation for the past four years. I wanted to prove I was falsely implicated. I thank my family members and friends who stood by me in thick and thin," said Sood. Meanwhile, Suman was not available for comments.

Suman’s crime graph

Besides being booked by the police for falsely implicating an innocent youth in a rape case, Suman Paul was also booked for conning a Delhi based woman, Seema Sehgal, and for committing a theft at a house in Haibowal. She is believed to have “strong links” with gangsters, hoteliers, travel agents and self-styled social activists who allegedly lured affluent youths by frequently changing their identities and phone numbers and later implicating them with false rape charges. Her father has reportedly disowned her.

Ludhiana, October 31 He was branded as a rapist and languished in jail for over 189 days, undergoing severe mental trauma. For nearly four years he suffered legal onslaughts hoping one day he would come out with his record clean. His family members faced social ostracism for a crime their child claimed he had never committed.

Rishi Sood, 31, is a happy man today as the "swindler" girl who ruined his life has been booked by the police for fraud, extortion and filing false rape charges against him.

However, booking the suspect, Suman Paul aka Neha aka Parul Gupta, a resident of Nehru Colony in Modi Nagar district near Gaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, was not a cakewalk for the city police. Despite knowing she has brought false rape charges against Sood many top cops, including SSPs, to dissuade them to file a case against her. That too when three superintendents of police, including two IPS officers, gave a “clean chit” to Sood during the probe conducted by a special investigation team set up by the Ludhiana DIG.

The team, led by Khanna SSP Gautam Cheema, maintained the girl had lodged a complaint against Sood with the intention to blackmail him in order to extort money and recommended cancellation of the FIR. The police also began proceedings under section 182 of the IPC against her for giving false statements to the police. Finally police commissioner Ishwar Singh stepped in and constituted another team, led by ADCP III JS Sidhu, which found Sood to be innocent. Suman was then booked for fraud and extortion.

The incident has again exposed how many women use loopholes in the law to harass innocent youths by falsely accusing them of rape.

Sood, who still shivers while narrating his ordeal, said he met the girl at an exhibition of medical equipment organised in New Delhi in September 2006, where she introduced herself as “Dr Neha”. He said they met at various places following which she “lured” him into marrying her, adding he even planned to visit Delhi to meet the girl’s parents.

“All was going smoothly, until one day Suman demanded Rs 1.5 lakh. I later got to know she had to pay a bill of Rs 1.5 lakh that she owed a local hotel as she was staying there for a long period. When I refused to pay the bill she got a case filed against me," Sood stated.

In the meantime Sood came to know Suman and an accomplice of hers had tried to implicate six other youths coming from “high status” families and working in the medical healthcare industry by sending them SMSes and calling up from different phone numbers. "Somehow we all exchanged notes and managed to escape from the clutches of the gang," he said. Little did Sood know he had landed in the net of an organised racket of "swindler girls" who extorted money from innocent young men by falsely accusing them of rape.

The gang was enjoying support from noted gangster Raman Rana, who is on the run after he killed his bitter rival Lalla. It is learnt that his operating the gang from outside the country. Rishi's father alleged a gang of swindlers had implicated his son in a false rape case and had demanded Rs 22 lakh from him for withdrawing the complaint.

"I refused to pay the extortion amount and spent 189 days in jail for a rape case," said Rishi and further added, "But my misery did not end here soon after freeing from jail another girl, member of the same gang, stated making frantic call at my number."

"Only I know how I faced this humiliation for the past four years. I wanted to prove I was falsely implicated. I thank my family members and friends who stood by me in thick and thin," said Sood. Meanwhile, Suman was not available for comments.

Suman’s crime graph

Besides being booked by the police for falsely implicating an innocent youth in a rape case, Suman Paul was also booked for conning a Delhi based woman, Seema Sehgal, and for committing a theft at a house in Haibowal. She is believed to have “strong links” with gangsters, hoteliers, travel agents and self-styled social activists who allegedly lured affluent youths by frequently changing their identities and phone numbers and later implicating them with false rape charges. Her father has reportedly disowned her.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

\Wendy Murphy once referred to the Duke lacrosse defendants on CNN's Nancy Grace show in this manner: "These guys, like so many rapists -- and I'm going to say it because, at this point, she's entitled to the respect that she is a crime victim."

Another time, she said this: "I never, ever met a false rape claim, by the way. My own statistics speak to the truth."

So how would we expect her to come down on the Assange case? Guess again.

Here's an excerpt:

Because as much as I care about fixing rape laws to better respect women’s freedom and equality—and as hard as I’ve fought for more than 20 years to hold offenders accountable as part of that reform work—it hurts rather than helps the cause when prosecutors exploit such a serious topic for unrelated political purposes.

If officials want a piece of Assange, they should charge him with espionage. It might be a tough case in light of First Amendment concerns, but so what? Nobody buys the sex charges anyway and espionage, on these facts, is a more serious offense. Better to try, and to lose, than pursue distracting charges in an unrelated case.

All countries need to do a better job prosecuting rape. But flexing that muscle in this case will do nothing to legitimize the idea that bodily integrity matters. To the contrary, it will establish even more firmly the historically entrenched and offensive idea that the value of a woman’s autonomy is measured by the political benefits of prosecuting the man who took it.

\Wendy Murphy once referred to the Duke lacrosse defendants on CNN's Nancy Grace show in this manner: "These guys, like so many rapists -- and I'm going to say it because, at this point, she's entitled to the respect that she is a crime victim."

Another time, she said this: "I never, ever met a false rape claim, by the way. My own statistics speak to the truth."

So how would we expect her to come down on the Assange case? Guess again.

Here's an excerpt:

Because as much as I care about fixing rape laws to better respect women’s freedom and equality—and as hard as I’ve fought for more than 20 years to hold offenders accountable as part of that reform work—it hurts rather than helps the cause when prosecutors exploit such a serious topic for unrelated political purposes.

If officials want a piece of Assange, they should charge him with espionage. It might be a tough case in light of First Amendment concerns, but so what? Nobody buys the sex charges anyway and espionage, on these facts, is a more serious offense. Better to try, and to lose, than pursue distracting charges in an unrelated case.

All countries need to do a better job prosecuting rape. But flexing that muscle in this case will do nothing to legitimize the idea that bodily integrity matters. To the contrary, it will establish even more firmly the historically entrenched and offensive idea that the value of a woman’s autonomy is measured by the political benefits of prosecuting the man who took it.

The boys of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity at the University of the Philippines staged their annual guys-get-naked-for-the-delight-of-the-ladies-fest last week, the iconic Oblation Run, as hordes of shrieking, hollering, blushing college women, their cameras and cell phones carefully aimed at their subjects' groins, cheered on a parade of bouncing penes and scrota attached to owners whose only clothing covered their faces. The raison d'etre for the yearly cavalcade of guy flesh is male-for-female exhibitionism.

It is a spectacle one female blogger called "interesting for most women." Another young lady was more blunt: "the whole male anatomy de-mystified. :)) I never thought that their organs actually bounced, you know?"

Another young woman said this: "We were practically spazzing out as we talked about it." Another exclaimed: "I was totally BLOWN THE [crude term for intercourse] AWAY. Honestly, I don't remember anything anymore. I kinda looked at their chests and their backs. . . . .I meet a tall guy I look at his chest and his face. (hair actually) I can only remember 'it' vaguely. Whatever. I was just riding on adrenaline. I love the fact that everyone was screaming and tossing about."

Still another woman praised her (female) prof for letting her class go watch: "Just when I have finally accepted the depressing fact that I would miss the Oblation run this year, enter my professor (BLESS HER!) who generously gave us the time to witness the thrill of the streaking =p"﻿

Oblation Run 2010

﻿

﻿﻿What, pray tell, would happen to a male professor who specifically let his class out early to witness naked college girl runners? I shudder for any man who would evenallow that passing thought. But a male professor is unlikely ever to have that choice. The fact is, a female-only Oblation Run would be inconceivable in the Philippines, or for that matter, in Philadelphia, or anywhere else. The event, as presently constituted, is mildly naughty when the guys shed their clothes; but it would be wholly offensive and politically incorrect in the extreme if the genders were reversed -- even though, it is fair to speculate, the reaction of a hetero male crowd wouldn't be anywhere near as spastic, over-the-top, or downright excited as the reaction of the female spectators.

It is well to note that if any of these boys ran around outside in their birthday suits at any other time of the year, more than a few of these shrieking, empowered young women likely would be sufficiently "offended" that they would call the police. But the nudity is just fine in the context of the Oblation Run because the boys are naked for the express purpose of titillating, and being ogled by, the women.

And that's really the point. You see, dear readers, it is OK for women to objectify men. Attending a bachelor party with a stripper is disgusting and depraved; attending a bachelorette party with a stripper and a raunchy cake depicting an ejaculating penis is empowering and a fun girls' night out. Feminists dismiss any suggestion of a double standard because "oogling involves an exchange of power; usually the oogler gains it and the oogled loses it. But many other activities and day-to-day experiences also involve exchanges of power, and in those exchanges, men are more likely to come out on top. If power was distributed equally in other situations, perhaps women should refrain from oogling. But it isn’t, and women are still in the red on the balance sheet of power. Until we’re in the black, I think it’s probably OK to objectify men, in certain circumstances . . . ." Therefore, "when you find yourself drooling over beautiful men, make the best of it." See here, too.

Get it? Objectification is wrong, but since they have more advantages than we do, it's OK when we objectify.

So much for silly things like principles, honesty, and integrity. If you want young women and men to buy into the notion that objectification, as a practice, is "wrong," you do a damn pathetic job of selling that point when your actions send the exact opposite message. That's called rationalization, ladies, and it smells a lot like the most ham-handed hypocrisy. When you try to have it both ways, is it any wonder nobody's buying it?

________________________

But all of this ignores the elephant in the room, the real double-standard at play here. Women objectify men every bit as much, and actually -- cue the feminist eye rolls -- a lot more, than men objectify women. Just not in a sexual way. "We live in a world where men are largely valued by how much money they make, what kind of job they have, and how much power they wield. While we may not objectify men in terms of appearance to the extent we do women, there is certainly a tendency to equate a man's worth with his position or power or fame." See here.

And the objectification of men goes way beyond money. It is culturally acceptable for women to concoct a whole fantasy man out of whole cloth, an object of their deepest wishfulness, and to use their imaginary little man as a yardstick to judge and grade the real life man with whom they're stuck. Because no flesh and blood possessor of the Y-chromosome can live up to that, it's the most deadly kind of objectification. Is it any wonder women initiate the vast majority of divorces? A female blogger said it better than I can:

"There is a cultural hangover of dependence, need and a desire to be rescued in which men are objectified by women not as strippers, per se, but as domestic saviors, knights-with-wrenches, good guys who come and repave your driveway, who make a lot of money and still have that youthful charm, who will read to the kids in their pajamas and start the coffee for you in the morning.

"While many of us won't admit it, we are as judgmental, critical and angry when our men fall short of these images and wishes we carry around as men are when we gain twenty pounds, appear haggard and spent, nagging the kids to brush their teeth and want sleep instead of sex.

If you listen to women talk about men it can be quite scathing.

We blanche upon hearing the foul language and cold tone in the conversations of men with regard to women's bodies and their sexual appeal; but listen to a group of girls or women discussing every flaw, every nuance, every shortcoming of a boy or man they are dating/seeing/flirting with/engaged/married to, and you will be able to deduce that while women are often speaking from a place of justice rather than mojo, their indignant perfectionism is a thing of intensity and, yes, objectification.

For when we assume a man should be all of these things we want them to be, aren't we ignoring their thinking, feeling, laughing, struggling, flawed selves?

The boys of Alpha Phi Omega fraternity at the University of the Philippines staged their annual guys-get-naked-for-the-delight-of-the-ladies-fest last week, the iconic Oblation Run, as hordes of shrieking, hollering, blushing college women, their cameras and cell phones carefully aimed at their subjects' groins, cheered on a parade of bouncing penes and scrota attached to owners whose only clothing covered their faces. The raison d'etre for the yearly cavalcade of guy flesh is male-for-female exhibitionism.

It is a spectacle one female blogger called "interesting for most women." Another young lady was more blunt: "the whole male anatomy de-mystified. :)) I never thought that their organs actually bounced, you know?"

Another young woman said this: "We were practically spazzing out as we talked about it." Another exclaimed: "I was totally BLOWN THE [crude term for intercourse] AWAY. Honestly, I don't remember anything anymore. I kinda looked at their chests and their backs. . . . .I meet a tall guy I look at his chest and his face. (hair actually) I can only remember 'it' vaguely. Whatever. I was just riding on adrenaline. I love the fact that everyone was screaming and tossing about."

Still another woman praised her (female) prof for letting her class go watch: "Just when I have finally accepted the depressing fact that I would miss the Oblation run this year, enter my professor (BLESS HER!) who generously gave us the time to witness the thrill of the streaking =p"

Quinn, 26, and Pearl appeared in the Toowoomba District Court and pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to bring a false accusation with a circumstance of aggravation and the alternate charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Crown prosecutor Noel Needham said Quinn and Pearl attended the Toowoomba Police Station on June 14, 2006 and provided a statement alleging Quinn’s ex-boyfriend Mark Anthony Frost had raped her at home on June 11.

Quinn gave police two handwritten letters, claiming to be from Mr Frost, which contained admissions.

Mr Needham told the court Quinn and Pearl were romantically involved and living together in Swallow Court (Newtown) at the time.

Quinn and Mr Frost had been in an on-and-off relationship between 2004 and 2006 and were engaged at one stage.

They broke up in April 2006 and Mr Frost moved out of the Swallow Court home where he had been living since January.

Mr Frost moved to Jondaryan.

A female housemate of the defendants, under the suggestion of Quinn, sent Mr Frost text messages using the name “Jessica Crawford” and organised to meet at the Coffee Club on June 11, 2006.

Mr Frost, his sister, and a friend drove from Jondaryan to Toowoomba that evening but after receiving a text message that the meeting was cancelled, they visited a family member’s house. They never went to Swallow Court.

The female housemate who sent the messages thought she was playing a joke on Mr Frost.

However, the court heard the next day she was in a car with Quinn and Pearl and heard them talking about how to make the false allegations of rape against Mr Frost.

Quinn even offered for the housemate to take part in the plan by saying she saw Mr Frost running from their house. The housemate declined.

Police charged Mr Frost with rape but the charge was dropped after the female housemate provided a statement to police. The trial continues today.